The Virginia High School League's Executive Committee voted to make girls wrestling an officially sanctioned sport on Wednesday in Charlottesville.
Starting with the 2025-26 athletic year, girls wrestling will be sanctioned by the VHSL and have state team championships. The postseason window for girls wrestling will run from Jan. 31, 2026-Feb. 14, 2026.
Each classification's state tournament will be a 16-team bracketed event based on entries. State tournaments for classes 1-3 will be held at the Salem Civic Center, while the tournament for classes 4-6 will take place at the Virginia Beach Sports Center.
Sydney Branch of Prince George, left, faces Jordan Forsyth of Patrick Henry in the 100-pound weight class in the first VHSL Girls State Open wrestling championships on Feb. 25, 2023.
Wednesday's decision comes a little less than three years after the VHSL Executive Committee voted to designate girls wrestling as an 鈥渆merging sport.鈥 This gave the sport a three-year period for it to reach the 50% + 1 member schools threshold among schools with wrestling programs.
People are also reading…
In the preceding season to that designation, 131 of the approximately 271 member schools with a boys wrestling program had at least one female on the team. If the number of programs with females on the team was below 136 heading into Wednesday鈥檚 meeting, the three-year process would have had to happen again.
The 鈥渆merging sport鈥 period allowed for a VHSL-sanctioned girls wrestling invitational state championship for all three years. During those three years, participating grew each year.聽
According to the VHSL, 273 female wrestlers competed during the first year of the 鈥渆merging sport鈥 period. The following year in 2024, that number grew to 401 competitors. This year, there were 631 female wrestlers competing in the VHSL, creating a large enough participation number to make it an officially sanctioned sport.
鈥淭he nature of our job is to create opportunities," VHSL assistant director of athletics Chris Robinson told The Daily Progress. "And in this instance, we were able to create an opportunity for our female student-athletes.鈥
The surge in numbers of female wrestlers made the decision very easy for the committee.
鈥淚 think the findings were positive, if for no other reason, just the significant increase in participation," Robinson said. "That shows the growth for our state and also allowed our executive committee to understand the significant increase in participation and allowed them to approve it and sanction it for 鈥25-26.鈥
While the increase has been very notable in the last three years, the sport could take a greater step under its new authorization.
鈥淚 think with it now being sanctioned, that will help us take it to another level," Robinson said. "I think that alone will entice more young ladies to give wrestling a try."
